Today, Pope Benedict released a letter to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. (That link is in Italian, but go for it)

Here’s an article from Catholic News Agency on the letter.

And here, canon lawyer Ed Peters takes a look at the letter, letting us know, in the midst of all the speculation of documents and reports that might or might not be relased – here’s something concrete. And it’s rather important.

Of those matters we know anything about (an important qualification when discussing papal activities), Benedict XVI’s letter to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints seems to me to be one of the most important things he’s done to date. It is certainly shows the clearest difference between him and John Paul II to emerge so far. Benedict XVI could have communicated his concerns about the beatification and canonization process in a simple telephone call; instead he wrote a short treatise on the topic. The world was meant to take notice.

….Moreover, most of the examples of those living the universal call to holiness seemed less than universal: while they came from many places around the world, the vast majority of canonizations and beatifications under John Paul II were of clergy and religious; of those laity lifted to the altars, almost all of them were martyrs. But how many examples of how to be a good nun, even in the twentieth century, does one need? Is there really, for all practical purposes, no way for laity to become saints except by martyrdom?

Beyond these pastoral questions, Benedict XVI’s letter also communicates some important theological points. I’ll mention just one: martyrdom must be carefully distinguished from other instances of religious persecution and murder, even those committed against Christians, by this crucial fact: a martyr accepts death delivered out of hatred for the Faith. A drive-by shooting victim, shot outside of a church because the killer hates Catholics, is not a martyr (for lack of acceptance of the death by the unaware victim). A Catholic priest thrown into a concentration camp because he is a priest, is a victim of religious hatred, but not a martyr (for lack of the witness ending in death). A pious Catholic girl who flees soldiers intent on raping the women of a village, during which flight she is shot, is not a martyr (for lack of the soldier’s hatred of the Faith).